fefe's blog

On Squidoo's New Limits for Amazon Modules

2010-12-23T23:13:00.001-08:00

I haven't made a blog post in awhile but feel the need to vent. Squidoo recently announced in the official blog post Systems for Making Better Lenses that there will now be a limit of 10 Amazon modules per lens. Existing lenses won't be affected. There's an eBay limit too but I don't really bother with eBay modules too much.

I make a lot of shopping lenses, some of which may have around 18+ Amazon modules. I was actually planning on making more. This just goes to show you cannot really count on another company like Squidoo and if you really want to make money online, you should diversify, and better yet have your own site(s).

Other lensmasters in the lesnmasters lounge are not happy with the change. Some lensmasters might leave. Some might use their own Amazon affiliate links in the lenses. If you do use your own affiliate links, Squidoo could one day say they are banning the use of affiliate links except for their special Amazon and eBay modules, etc.

I'm going to keep using Squidoo. It's just frustrating that when I'm finally in the mood to make more shopping lenses they change the rules. Sure, I can just make lenses that only use 10 Amazon Spotlight modules. Whatever. Maybe it's time to make some more top 10 lenses like my Top 10 80s Movies Lens. Maybe it's not a good example because it doesn't make a lot of Amazon sales, but it does currently get the most traffic out of all of my lenses.

Ok, that was fun venting. I don't think anyone will actually read this since I have not really been good about blogging--my last update was in 2008!

Anyway, Happy Holidays! I'm excited that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I'm going to try to forget about Squidoo for a couple days.

Thanks Giant Squid Community Showcase!

2008-05-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

My lens was just featured in the Giant Squid Community Showcase! Here's the article:: Submit URL: Getting Your Squidoo Lens Noticed. Wow, I am glad they liked it enough to be one of the first lenses posted on their blog! I will be subscribing to their blog because I want to see all of the Giant Squid lenses they feature.

McCain vs Obama

2008-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Obama is going after McCain instead of Hillary now after he picked up some more Super Delegates. Who would you rather be the next president? McCain or Obama?

Pug Stuff, Charity, and Mother's Day

2008-05-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

Shopping for Cute Pug Stuff was one of my first lenses. It was a fun one to make and people gave me some nice comments about it.

I just made a new lens about a book from that lens The Tao of Pug and submitted it to bdkz's Squidoo Charity Challenge for May 2008. The Tao of Pug is such a good pug picture book that is enlightening at the same time. I hope that it will end up making money for charity. The two charities it supports are Save the Children and The Children's Defense fund, also supported by Idol Gives Back.

I also added a Mother's Day Gifts lens to the charity challenge. It might be too late to attract Mother's Day shoppers online, but you never know and there's always next Mother's day! I added a lot of gift suggestions based on what my own mom likes and invite others to add gifts their mom's like as well.

Maybe I should make a Father's Day themed lens now. I wonder does anyone still get ties for Father's Day gifts anymore? With business casual dress, I bet a dad could go a long time without wearing a tie. My dad prefers computer stuff to ties.

Giant Squid

2008-05-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, I became a Giant Squid on Squidoo today. Just this week, there was a real Giant Squid in the news only this one was 1,000 pounds and scientists were thawing it out. Then I saw one one of the search engines (maybe it was Yahoo!) that giant squid was one of the most popular search terms for the day and I wondered if Squidoo's Giant Squid page would turn up as a result when people searched google for 'giant squid.' No, it looks like the results for 'giant squid' are mostly for the sea creature.

Here's a Giant Squid Video for you.

Making Squidoo lenses for charity

2008-04-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

Making Squidoo lenses for charity is a good thing, and lensmaster bdkz has started bdkz's Squidoo Charity Challenge. Each month a different charity will be featured and lensmasters can submit their G rated lenses by converting their lens to give all the earnings to the specified charity and add it to a plexo on the challenge lens.

Check out the lens bdkz's Squidoo Charity Challenge for April 2008. In the list of lenses, my favorite is the Singing Dogs Video Showcase. The more serious lenses are nice of course too, but the singing dogs are too funny to not be my favorite.

The lenses I submitted to the challenge are:
Star Trek: TNG vs. Star Trek: TOS - a MonkeyBrain lens. I like TNG.

Shopping for Squid Stuff - Dried Squid anyone?

Shampoo vs Conditioner - a MonkeyBrain debate that is also debated about in the movie Billy Madison.

Code Monkey - a lens about one of my new favorite songs.

Should Cookie Monster eat food besides cookies? - a MonkeyBrain debate about Cookie Monster and his new eating habits.

There you have it! I look forward to seeing what May's challenge will be and will challenge myself to make some charity lenses each month. Why keep all the millions of dollars I am making from Squidoo to myself? Just kidding about the millions. But it does feel nice to give. Check out bdkz's Charity Challenge Blog and find out how you can participate if you're interested.

Bunny will not take over the world

2008-04-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Bunny is trying to take over the world and must be stopped.

Will Bunny Take Over the World?

(\__/)
( O.o)
(> < ) This is Bunny. Bunny is evil. Please help us prevent Bunny from reaching global domination by copying this message and pasting it to your own signature. Thank you!

Star Trek Debate

2008-04-24T19:30:00.001-07:00

I couldn't get it out of my head that I needed to make a MonkeyBrain debate about Star Trek. Someone had already made a Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate.

I ended up making a hmb debate asking Which is better: Star Trek TNG or Star Trek TOS?. I started it off saying I like TNG better. It was the series I watched growing up and I was really into the characters, especially Data. This isn't to say TOS is bad, I like it too.

Join in the Star Trek debate if you have an opinion on the matter! In a MonkeyBrain debate there are only two options so I chose two of my favorite Star Trek series and left out Deep Space 9, Voyager and Enterprise.

That was my Squidoo lens for the day while I am waiting for the next episode of Lost to finally air tonight! I would like to make a debate about Lost too but I haven't figured out the topic yet. Maybe tonight's episode will give me an idea.

UPDATE: Okay, here's the Lost Debate I came up with.

Evil Lensrank

2008-04-22T18:24:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I have noticed a Squidoo lens with lensrank 666 and it is my lens. Oh joy!

Stumpedia

2008-04-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Check out this Squid U Post about submitting links to Stumpedia. It's a human powered search engine that you can submit your lens and other links to after becoming a member for free. Members can vote links up or down.

The site seems new as most search terms I entered didn't have any results. I submitted a bunch of my lenses to see what happens. I thought maybe it will be the next big thing and it couldn't hurt to submit. You can check out my profile and see just how crazy I went submitting links! If you create a profile let me know and I'll check out your links.

Welcome! I'm a MonkeyBrain.

2008-04-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. It will probably be mostly about Squidoo and the lenses I like or make.

My favorite lenses lately have been MonkeyBrain Debates!

I have only made 2 so far -
Do Ghosts Exist? - this one is pretty popular with lots of people giving their opinion.

Should you use LOL if you aren't really laughing out loud? - this one is taking more time to catch on. I thought it would be fun to start a debate after seeing nomorelol.com. The site suggests you should not use LOL if you are not laughing out loud. LOI should be used for laughing on the inside. I don't agree! I think everyone knows LOL means something was funny and who cares if you laughed or not!

If you want to keep up with the latest quality MonkeyBrain lenses, check out the blog Cowabunga which blogs about new MonkeyBrain lenses.